Media's Deafening Silence on US Drone Wars

Our reporter in Pakistan reveals that the drone war isn’t just a political issue, it’s a media challenge.

Drone wars in Pakistan, photo courtesy: globalpost.com

(FAISALABAD, Pakistan) - America’s drone war has countless silent victims. Since President Barack Obama massively expanded his reliance on the weapon from 2009, the number of civilians killed in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen has sky-rocketed, but we rarely hear about these murders.

The Western corporate media is content rehashing White House press releases about "militants" and "terrorists" being extinguished, yet support for al-Qaeda is rising in the countries hit by Washington's drones.

The US President is judge, jury and executioner over the individuals who are killed, allegedly as terrorists. But serious questions remain, not least the revelation that civilians are guilty unless proven innocent. There's only one person that's been identified that had any connection to al-Qaeda there. And 21 women and 14 children were killed in that strike and the US tried to cover it up, and say it was a Yemeni strike, and we know from the WikiLeaks cables that David Petraeus conspired with the president of Yemen to lie to the world about who did that bombing. It's murder... it's mass murder.

Ihsan Tipu is a Pakistani New York Times employee. He said that al-Qaeda remained strong and was growing. There were hundreds of recruits, including many from overseas training camps he said at least 80 French Muslims were present and they were then sent back for missions in the West. "If you visit markets in Waziristan you will see many white, Western, Muslim men carrying AK-47s, from Germany, Britain and beyond," Tipu told me. "You never make eye-contact with them, just look down and move on."

The last ten years have seen the mainstream media embrace the drone war as effective, silent and deadly. But in reality it is anything but, willfully murdering civilians with barely a whimper from corporate reporters. How many more wedding parties in Pakistan need to be slaughtered before there are legal ramifications for drone “mistakes”?

Despite Israel being the original masters of drone technology new revelations outline Australian forces in Afghanistan relying on Israeli-owned drones to fight Taliban militants other countries are developing their capabilities, such as Iran, China and even Australia.

The drone war isn’t just a political issue, it’s a media challenge. When virtually no Western reporters are able to get access to remote areas of Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, editors should acknowledge this. When “militants” are supposedly killed, press releases have replaced real, reported news. Having just spent time in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and met a number of competent local journalists, it is beyond comprehension why Western news outlets don’t rely on such people to get first-hand accounts of the drone strikes.

May God grant you a great harvest as you plant and water for Him!

Reverend Pervaiz Khokhar is a contributing writer in Asia who covers issues pertaining to Christianity in countries that fail to tolerate religious freedom. Perfaiz is the Chairman of The Preaching Society & Social Welfare Services, Mohallah Rasool Pura Street No 7 in Jhumra City, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

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